Changes in support cycle for Dynamics 365 application releases

Microsoft have just released the official policy for updating major releases in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement and Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations.

Some of the scope and procedures was disclosed during the Spring ‘18 Release, but many details has not been public available before now. As announced earlier, each year Microsoft plan to release two major application releases and twelve platform releases, and has announced the release notes for the Fall ‘18 Release update to be published by 23. July 2018.

It is especially important to note the key changes in the support policy:

“… For Dynamics 365 (online) Customer Engagement applications, we sent update communications in May, 2018 to all customers running v8.1 and have scheduled updates. Customers running v8.2 should plan to update to the latest version by January 31, 2019.

For Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (online), all customers running versions 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, and 8.0 should update to the latest version by March 31, 2019. The only exception to being on the latest version is for customers with unfulfilled extension requests by Microsoft. For these customers, support for version 7.3 will be available until April 30, 2020.

We will continue to fully support older versions of Dynamics 365 applications until the time frame mentioned earlier. After those dates, we will only support the latest generally available version. …”.

With the new support policy for major releases in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, the support cycle has changed for several application releases:

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise editionVersion 7.3:End of Support has changed from December 2020 to April 2020.

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise editionVersion July 2017:End of Support has changed from June 2020 to April 2019.

Dynamics 365 for OperationsVersion 1611:End of Support has changed from November 2019 to April 2019.

Dynamics 365 on-premise implementations:

Specifically related to on-premises, the changes in the update policy do NOT apply for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, but DO apply for Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations.

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, application release 10:

Finally, Microsoft have already scheduled the release 10 of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations application:

“… The April 2019 update will be referred to as version 10. All customers running versions 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, and 8.0 should update to version 10. …”